~ Because demented people need love, too.

Author Archives: emilypageart

I came home last night to discover that, Dizzy, the weirdest kitty that ever was, had died while I was at work. He’s was only 5 years old and had appeared totally healthy, so the vet suggested that he might have had an undiscovered heart condition and had had a heart attack. We’re not doing an autopsy, so we’ll never really know. But I’m so sad that I wasn’t there for him in his final moments.

A cat with that much personality deserves a fitting send-off, so I’m reposting my past posts about him. Please wear a belt today in his honor, and strut around confidently showing it off.

I’m a day late and eleventy-twelve dollars short on the weekly tattoo wrap-up. Sorry. It’s been a really good couple weeks. I mean, not if you’re woman, or a person of color, or really, anyone who’s not a conservative white male. But tattoo-wise, it’s been a good couple weeks – especially for women. It was a week of empowerment for several of my female friends/customers. So, we’ll start with those, then tack on a couple tattoos I did for guys just for funsies.

First up, the cover-ups. I keep forgetting to take pics before I’ve drawn on them or stenciled on what I’ll be covering with, but here you go:

For a customer who turned 45 and said she was too old for “boob cherries” and that it was time for a grown-up tattoo.

For a friend who had outgrown her old tattoo.

For a customer who needed to get rid of her ex’s initials.

For one of my favorite customers (who happens to have MS) who wanted to commemorate her family. I really love this one. It wraps all the way around and there are song lyrics and an MS ribbon on the inside of her wrist. And one of the morning glory vines says “Bomba” which is what her grandfather called her.

For a friend who lost her mom to breast cancer a few years ago. She’d been looking for her mom’s handwriting everywhere and couldn’t find it. Then she suddenly stumbled across it and she’d signed it with this. Not gonna lie, we both teared up when we put this on her.

This one was really special to me: a girl I’ve known since she was 9 years old drove from VA to get a tattoo from me to celebrate having reached her 35th year. This is a big deal, because she’s got cystic fibrosis, and not too long ago, kids with CF really didn’t live beyond their early 20’s at best because their lungs gave up. She got “just breathe” on her rib cage when she turned 30. When they teach kids about cystic fibrosis, they often teach them to call it “sixty-five roses,” because it’s easier to remember, so we went with that theme for this tattoo. I’m so honored to be able to help my friend commemorate having made it this far. Looking forward to giving her the next tattoo when she hits 40.

I also had a customer who got 6 small tattoos to help her leave her divorce behind and move forward into the next phase of her life, but I didn’t snap photos because it would have required me to take my gloves off 6 times to use my phone, and that was a royal pain. But take my word for it, they were lovely.

I also-also got a message from a friend who I’ve tattooed several times who thanked me for helping her start to love parts of her body that she’s always been ashamed of. Having something beautiful on her body makes her accept and love it more. Best message I’ve gotten in a long time.

And now for the guys:

Not entirely clear what the story was here. He said it had something to do with anime and there being links on the chain of life.

Not sure this one requires much of an explanation. But damn, y’all, tattooing circles is haaaaaard. Why are stopwatches round?!!

And finally, I had a young man come in who sat for two 5-hour sessions and it was his very first tattoo. He had a pain tolerance like you wouldn’t believe, but he was also a Crohn’s sufferer, so maybe he’s used to pain? Also, he lost his dad to the same disease as my dad when he was only 9 years old. Made me super grateful that I had my dad for as long as I did:

Not the greatest picture, but it’s an oni mask and snake. I’ll try to get a better one once it has healed. You can see a video of the whole thing on my instagram feed (@emilypageart).

And that’s it for the week. See? Some good things for some good people. So even though America is going to hell in supreme court justice robe, we still have individual wins to celebrate. Hang in there, friends.

My fellow tattoo artist at Ratatat Tats, Julio, loves drawings and paintings of women with Harley Quinn clown makeup. He had a bare wall in his studio room, so as a suprise, I made him two paintings. I took the pin-up girl style, added the clown makeup, and then, because he frequently suggests filling in space around tattoos with “some filigree and some roses,” I included each in these sister paintings as a little insider joke. I posted the filigree one yesterday, so here is the roses one. Both are available as prints, shirts, dresses, pillows, mugs, and other fun swag. Links below the image.

My fellow tattoo artist at Ratatat Tats, Julio, loves drawings and paintings of women with Harley Quinn clown makeup. He had a bare wall in his studio room, so as a suprise, I made him two paintings. I took the pin-up girl style, added the clown makeup, and then, because he frequently suggests filling in space around tattoos with “some filigree and some roses,” I included each in these sister paintings as a little insider joke. I’ll post one painting today (the one with the filigree) and one tomorrow. Both are available as prints, shirts, dresses, pillows, mugs, and other fun swag. Links below the image.

I finally set up one of the spare rooms at the tattoo studio so that I could do some painting on my down time. I had started this painting almost 2 years ago, but after doing several veggie paintings, I sort of burned out on them for a little while. I finally decided to sit down and finish this little guy, and now I love it!

I finished it while listening to the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing, which was upsetting me for various reasons. I feel like our world is shifting in a very scary direction. That’s why I named the painting, “At Least We Still Have Tomatoes.” Silver lining, right?

At Least We Still Have Tomatoes 8″x 10″ oil on board $250

Original available here. Prints and other merchandise available here, here, and here.

After a lousy week due to the hurricane, this week was a lot more interesting. I turned 41, for one thing, which wasn’t my favorite thing. It was one thing to have to say I was 40. It’s a whole other thing having to say that I’m “in my 40’s.” Le sigh. But I got to do a few fun tattoos and I wasn’t bored out of my skull while stuck at home waiting for the storm to kill me. First up was this trio of tattoos a yoga practitioner requested:

The customer wanted 2 foxes coming out of a tunnel that was also a mandala, so…

I wish I had taken a photo from farther away because this was on the customer’s sternum, and it just looked so damn good there!

For sisters whose mom calls them ladybugs.

Didn’t get the story behind why he wanted a broken heart, especially when he came in with his girlfriend, but this is his first tattoo.

The 7th tattoo I’ve given my friend Bonnie. She’s got a nautical theme going on both of her thighs. Looking forward to seeing this once it has healed.

Rib cages are a pain in the ass to tattoo, just FYI, but this turned out pretty well, considering.

There’s this super cute pony, Zooey, at the stable where my mom boards her horse, and all the little kids learn to ride on her. For a pony, she’s pretty darn sweet, and, obviously, adorable. So I decided to do a little painting of her:

Zooey 10″ x 8″ oil on board $250

Original for sale here. Prints and other fun merchandise available here, here, and here.

Well, what do you know?! We didn’t get destroyed by the hurricane after all. Other areas weren’t nearly as lucky, so please, take a moment to donate to a charity working in the affected areas because there are a lot of people who lost everything. The only thing we really lost was about half a week of wages. Sucks, but it could have been SO much worse. And I actually did end up having enough tattoos to do my supposed-to-be-weekly post of tattoos:

Had 2 customers get matching tattoo lyrics on their rib cages. Not sure what it really means, but I love the font they chose.

I’m late with this. I know. But I had reasons. Important reasons. All the reasons. One of which is hurricane preparedness. Because Aunt Flo – I mean, Hurricane Flo, is on her way and Raleigh has lost its damn mind. The store shelves were bare by yesterday afternoon. I think our house and tattoo studio are okay flood-wise, though I’m a little worried about trees coming down on the house. And I’ve lived through power outtages before, so I’ll make do,and reassure the cats that the world is not ending. But the haunt? The haunt will flood. Not a damn thing we can do about that except figure out how to charge the mosquitos for their new standing-water theme park.

But let’s talk about happier things, like tattoos. Here are a couple fun ones from last week:

My favorite of the week. This customer had a rough relationship with someone in her family and decided to turn it into something positive by commemorating him with her favorite things about him.

An X-ray of a star magnolia.

Don’t know why, but this one just struck my fancy.

This customer wanted an abstract treble clef/heart anklet so I came up with this.

That’s really it. Expect there to not be a tattoo wrap-up next week since we’re going to be closed several days this week for the impending weather doom. But I’ve been doing a little painting, so hopefully I’ll get my ass in gear and post my latest paintings instead. Hopefully. Don’t count on it. I’m lazy like that.

Lucky #13, y’all. It’s still been pretty slow at the tattoo studio, but things have picked up at least a little bit. Most of the tattoos I did the last couple weeks weren’t all that interesting to anyone other than the people getting them, but here are some highlights. My favorite of the week was my last one of the week. I really wanted some practice at realism tattooing, so I posted an image on Facebook and asked my friends if anyone would let me play on them, you know, with ink…permanently. And crazy people that my friends are, I had someone say yes. So here’s what she got:

This customer is married to a tanker in the military

No story behind this one that I know of, but it looks pretty cool, so I’m posting it.

Hailey is the customer’s daughter.

This one is in honor of the customer’s favorite anime show.

I wish I had a better pic of this one so you could see all the delicate stippling in the skin and the flower, but it’s still cute.

For her heritage.

Didn’t get the store behind this one. Sorry.

My second favorite of the week. My instructions were to design a train coming out of a compass like a tunnel. Since my dad was such a train buff, I really enjoyed doing this one.